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Welcome to another episode of BFFT! All the regulars are here this episode. Taebyn, Rayne, TickTock, Cheetaro and Ziggy are all here! Since Halloween is just around the corner we decided to switch things up this episode and discuss that timeless Classic from 1974: Young Frankenstein. So,if you have nothing to do for about 90 minutes, why not tune in for another T-Riffic (that is Taebyn-Riffic) episode of BFFT! Moobarkfluff everyfur!

Please feel free to email us at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com 

This podcast contains adult language and adult topics. It is rated M for Mature. Listener discretion is advised.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting S6E9 - Movie Night: Young Frankenstein

Independent developer Finite Reflection Studios has announced Mouseward, an N64-inspired Soulslike, coming to PC. Featuring a modern take on retro aesthetics, the game is "a nostalgic love letter to the golden age of 3D adventures."

Watch the Mouseward announcement trailer:

Austrian developer Everflux Games is excited to announce their debut title, Edenfall: Legacy of the First Wardens is coming to Steam in 2026. Edenfall: Legacy of the First Wardens is a single-player action-adventure set in a charming, hand-crafted environment. Players will play as Venya, a young shapeshifting heroine, on her journey through a whimsical world. Eden has been overrun by evil creatures. It's your task to drive them out and heal the world. Discover your people's past and uncover your magical abilities, including the power to transform into animals, including a wolf, raccoon, and raven.

Key Features

• Explore | Traverse a magical world in four forms: human, wolf, raccoon, and raven: each form comes with a unique movement system and combat toolset.
• C-C-Combo! | Master an intricate combat system and unlock mighty combos by chaining attacks from different forms.
• A journey of growth | Join our hero on her path to reflection and growth to find inner peace. Find magical crystals to learn new combos and complete sidequests to gain more customisation features.
• Heal the world | Cleanse parts of the world from corruption and be rewarded with the breathtaking experience of the once-corrupted land being restored.

The demo for the exciting new single player experience has just released and is available to play right here!

1. 1. What Is the Furry Fandom
   2. A Brief History of the Furry Fandom
   3. Why People Join the Furry Fandom
   4. Common Misconceptions About the Furry Fandom
   5. How the Furry Fandom Expresses Creativity
   6. Conclusion

Article Content

• What Is the Furry Fandom
• A Brief History of the Furry Fandom
• Why People Join the Furry Fandom
• Common Misconceptions About the Furry Fandom
• How the Furry Fandom Expresses Creativity
• Conclusion

What Is the Furry Fandom

The furry fandom is a worldwide community built around an interest in animals with human-like traits, such as expression, speech, and emotion. People who take part in the fandom, known as furries, use this shared interest as a way to create art, stories, and friendships that celebrate imagination and individuality.

At its core, the furry fandom is about self-expression and creativity. Many members design animal-inspired characters that reflect parts of their personality or simply explore a world they enjoy. These characters often appear in drawings, costumes, and stories that help fans bring their ideas to life.

The community thrives both online and in person. Fans connect through digital spaces like Discord groups, social media platforms, and art-sharing websites where they can showcase their work and meet others who share their interests. Offline, they gather at furry conventions and local meetups to trade art, celebrate creativity, and build lasting friendships.

The furry fandom is open to anyone who enjoys creativity and storytelling. Some people focus on drawing, others on costume building or writing, and many simply enjoy the sense of community it offers. It is a space defined by diversity, acceptance, and passion for creative freedom.

A Brief History of the Furry Fandom

The furry fandom began as a small creative niche and has since grown into one of the most expressive online communities in the world. Its roots stretch back to the late 1970s, when fans of science fiction and animation began creating stories and art featuring animals with human-like qualities.

The idea of mixing human emotion and animal design had always existed in media: from classic cartoons to early animated films, but this period marked the first time people started forming a community around it. Fans shared illustrations, created original stories, and met through small gatherings at science fiction conventions.

By the 1980s, the movement had developed a clear identity. Dedicated events started forming, giving artists and writers a place to connect and collaborate. These gatherings would eventually grow into the large-scale conventions that the community enjoys today.

The rise of the internet in the 1990s and early 2000s allowed the fandom to expand globally. Artists could share their creations instantly, and fans from around the world could communicate through online forums and art platforms. This period also helped define the cultural identity of the community, distinguishing it from other forms of anthropomorphic art.

Today, the furry fandom continues to thrive through online spaces, creative collaboration, and social gatherings. It remains a place where imagination and individuality are celebrated.

Why People Join the Furry Fandom

People join the furry fandom for many reasons. For some, it begins with an interest in art and storytelling. For others, it becomes a way to express themselves, meet new people, and explore identity in a creative and accepting space.

At its heart, the furry community offers a mix of creativity, friendship, and personal growth that continues to attract members from all over the world.

A Place for Creative Expression

The furry fandom gives people the freedom to create. Members design original characters, write stories, draw digital art, and perform through costume or animation. These outlets allow fans to explore ideas that may not fit into traditional creative spaces.

Many enjoy designing or commissioning artwork that brings their characters to life. This shared love for creation is one of the main reasons the fandom has continued to grow.

A Sense of Belonging

For many fans, the furry community feels like home. It is a welcoming environment where people can share their interests, make friends, and express themselves without fear of judgment.

This inclusivity has helped the fandom become one of the most positive and supportive creative communities online. People come together to celebrate art, creativity, and individuality.

Exploring Identity

Creating a character gives people a chance to express parts of themselves that might be hard to share in everyday life. Some fans build characters that reflect who they are, while others create entirely new versions of themselves through fantasy.

The process of building a fursona can lead to greater self-understanding and confidence. It can also help people express personality traits or emotions that feel more natural through their character.

The furry fandom thrives on shared enthusiasm. Whether online or at conventions, people gather to collaborate, trade art, and celebrate creativity together. 

People join the furry fandom for their own reasons, but they all share a love for creativity and expression. Whether through art, performance, or friendship, the community offers a space where imagination feels at home.

Common Misconceptions About the Furry Fandom

Like many creative subcultures, the furry fandom has often been misunderstood by people outside it. Misconceptions tend to come from a lack of information or from media portrayals that focus on the unusual rather than the everyday reality. In truth, the community is built on creativity, art, and connection.

The fandom includes artists, performers, writers, and fans from all backgrounds. Most members take part because they enjoy the artistic side of the community and the sense of belonging it provides. Still, a few common misunderstandings have shaped how outsiders view it.

Misconception 1: The Furry Fandom Is Only About Costumes

While fursuits are one of the most visible parts of the fandom, they represent only a small portion of what it is about. Most furries do not own or wear suits, and many focus instead on digital art, writing, or online roleplay. Costuming is just one of many creative outlets within the fandom.

Misconception 2: Furry Art Is Always Sexual

A common stereotype is that furry art is primarily adult-focused. In reality, the majority of the art within the fandom is not sexual at all. Most artists create wholesome character portraits, comics, or fantasy illustrations that highlight storytelling and creativity.

Like any large community, there are adult areas, but they are separate from the main fandom. Reducing the entire community to that one aspect ignores the thousands of artists who focus purely on creativity, character design, and worldbuilding.

Misconception 3: Furries Cannot Tell Fantasy from Reality

Some outsiders believe that furries think they are animals or wish to live as them. This is not true for most members. While some enjoy roleplaying or exploring animal traits through art, the majority simply use their characters as creative avatars or symbolic representations.

For many people, their fursona is a way to express identity, personality, or emotion through storytelling and design.

Misconception 4: The Fandom Is Not Inclusive

The furry community is often more inclusive than it is given credit for. It welcomes people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests who value creativity and kindness. Most community spaces focus heavily on respect, safety, and collaboration.

This inclusivity has helped the fandom grow into one of the most diverse and supportive creative communities online.

Understanding the truth behind these misconceptions shows what the furry fandom really is — a community based on imagination, friendship, and expression. It thrives because people support one another and celebrate creativity in all its forms.

How the Furry Fandom Expresses Creativity

Creativity is at the heart of the furry fandom. The community thrives because its members are always finding new ways to bring imagination to life. Every person contributes something unique, whether through art, writing, music, or costume design. This variety of expression is what keeps the fandom vibrant and welcoming.

Art and Illustration

Art is one of the most recognisable parts of the fandom. Thousands of artists draw original characters, comics, and portraits that bring fursonas and stories to life. These artworks connect people from around the world and form the visual identity of the community.

Digital tools have made it easier than ever for artists to collaborate and share their work. Some focus on stylised character art, while others experiment with 3D models, digital painting, or animation. For many, art is both a hobby and a way to build friendships within the community.

Writing and Storytelling

Writing is another cornerstone of creativity within the fandom. Many furries create stories that explore their characters’ personalities or entire fictional worlds. Some use writing as a way to express emotions, develop character backstories, or explore themes of identity and belonging.

Fan fiction, webcomics, and collaborative storytelling groups all play a big role in keeping the community active and inspired.

Costuming and Performance

Costume creation, known as fursuiting, combines craftsmanship with performance. Each suit is designed to match a character’s personality and appearance, and wearing it allows fans to perform and interact in character.

Fursuiters often take part in photoshoots, parades, and meetups where they perform for others or express themselves in playful, creative ways. It takes a mix of sewing, sculpting, and imagination to bring these characters to life.

Music and the Furry Rave Scene

The furry fandom has a strong and growing connection to electronic music. Many conventions host late-night dance events known as furry raves, featuring DJs and producers from within the community. These events combine lighting, visuals, and sound to create an atmosphere of energy and freedom where attendees can perform or dance as their characters.

The music itself often blends electronic subgenres such as house, trance, drum and bass, and synthwave. Some artists write original songs that reflect themes of transformation, freedom, or emotion, ideas that resonate deeply with the community.

Furry music producers frequently share their work online, sometimes using their fursona as their stage identity. This has led to a small but passionate music scene where furry DJs and composers collaborate, remix each other’s work, and perform at conventions across the world.

Community Collaboration

Creativity in the fandom often happens through collaboration. Artists, musicians, and writers work together on themed projects, charity events, and digital showcases. These group efforts have helped raise funds for animal charities, support small creators, and even launch professional careers that began inside the fandom.

This spirit of teamwork keeps the community connected and ensures that creativity continues to evolve in new and exciting directions.

The furry fandom’s creative range goes far beyond art and costume design. From digital illustration to live DJ sets, it continues to grow as technology and artistic trends change. At its core, the fandom remains a celebration of imagination, performance, and the shared joy of creating something meaningful together.

Conclusion

Drawing furry poses and proportions might feel challenging at first, but with practice and a solid understanding of anatomy, you’ll start to see real progress. Whether your fursona walks on two legs or runs on all fours, the balance between human and animal features will become second nature as you continue to draw. Remember to keep experimenting with expressions, body language, and poses to make your characters truly unique.

Most importantly, enjoy the process. Your fursona is a reflection of your creativity and personality, so don’t stress about getting everything perfect right away. With time, you’ll develop your own style, and your characters will come to life in ways you never imagined.

Happy drawing, and keep creating!

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Author

Xege Kheiru

Jennifer is an ex-costume designer turned fursuit maker, better known by her fursona's name Xege Kheiru. Under this alias she has written extensively for the Fursonafy blog and many others on the topic of fursuit making and general information about the furry fandom.

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The post What Is the Furry Fandom? Everything You Need To Know appeared first on Fursonafy.

Sick of bad news? Want some good news? Here’s how to make it. Get armed with knowledge to demand better for your community. When there is injustice, getting justice starts with reporting it. Bad media likes to linger on gross details of crime, but helpful media investigates and criticizes patterns, issues, impact, policy and leadership. This public service is often requested by people who need help — especially when leaders and police don’t help — like when there’s internet activity outside their reach, or news has to reach sources they need to come forward. It’s a job for independent reporting, so it can’t be suppressed when leaders are corrupt or protecting friends. This is news by us, for us, because outsiders and bad people don’t run your community… you do.

Five stories get their own headline posts. Here’s the short versions.

(1) Tennessee furry group leaders corrupted with predators and drug death; two evidence documents. MurfreesFurs, a furry group in Tennessee with around 1000 members, was the subject of an evidence document with 30 sources alleging that organizers covered up nazis and zoophiles in their inner circle, and failed to protect the community from predators. Sources face retaliation, and Dogpatch Press was pressured for suppression before even reporting. The shocking thing is, it was only part of the problem. A second evidence document came out independently from the first, alleging more serious complicity by MurfreesFurs organizers in CSAM, drug dealing and a fentanyl death. Sources include police reports and prison records.

(2) Mephit Furmeet put one of the world’s most infamous zoophiles on stage to represent the fandom. For years, furry conventions have hosted Charles Alexander Berry, AKA Toggle Rat. He runs a podcast that launders animal molesting as identity, like NAMBLA for zoophiles, while hiding their victims offstage. In 2021 he was outed as a zoophile with his husband running a furry group in Tennessee. Many people’s effort to protect the fandom went unheard in August 2025, when despite protest, Berry was given a platform on stage at Mephit Furmeet, the furry con running since the 1990’s in Memphis, TN.

(3) UK furry event founder and outed zoosadist ring member is still running events 7 years later. A series of international furry events under the name Club Animalz (and others) has been held in Manchester and Berlin since 2017. The founder, Foxb/Foxbearance, AKA Ben Mills, was exposed as an animal rapist in the 2018 zoosadist leaks. Mills raped animals on video, in a fursuit made for him, that he kept using for years afterward. In 2025, his events are still popular and partnered with large cons in the mainstream of furry like Confuzzled.

(4) Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues. Florida’s Mare Fair is an adults-only My Little Pony convention. It crosses fandom for a kid’s show with the edgy chanboard culture seen in The Atlantic’s article about the MLP fandom’s Nazi problem. The con is organized by 4chan users and bounced between 3 venues in 3 years while raising a reputation for hateful behavior. The management also teamed up with a zoophile, Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster, to help run Mare Fair and found a new con. Two horse rescue charity operators claimed that Foster manipulated their operations after keeping a crippled horse alive in pain for years of sex abuse. Foster’s enablers in management include Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope, who runs a website to host bestiality videos. Hope milks fandom with silver coin sales and his own cryptocurrency. This allegedly ties con finances to shady donors with crypto-wealth, who break charity records set by other cons — conveniently buying a PR front.

(5) Nazifur sex offender keeps going in and out of jail while misleading furries to trust him. In Colorado, Jacob Kovar was a nazifur sex offender who was convicted after his arrest warrant credited investigation by Dogpatch Press. Kovar did crimes as head of security for a furry convention, until they got tipped and fired him. After years in jail, Kovar returned to the community with friends in a regular furry group, while he was allegedly violating parole to be online. Kovar had his parole revoked and was arrested again in late 2025.

Click through to the full stories or read on for more context.

A system problem 

It’s pointless to debate about whether our groups are good or bad. The issue isn’t psychology of ordinary people with ordinary problems. It’s structural. We have internet-based subculture where users also meet in real life, but we don’t own the foundation. Social media is broken with a mountain of analysis about why. There’s so much to say about dependence on corporate internet, with unaccountable management and profit above principles. Furries rely on it for a loose and insecure network of local bubbles, but it also enables manipulators and abusers to have their own networks. Sometimes they gain influence over yours.

While the platforms are a fundamental problem, there’s the idea that furries are above it by being tolerant and loving. That has a dark side. Love is blind and goodwill doesn’t exclude favoritism for bad friends. Volunteerism without money doesn’t exclude predators from social influence. It makes our own work to do internally, on top of broken platforms that make complacency with the status quo.

Sometimes the community organizes to force bad leadership out. That happened in New Jersey, where the corrupt con Garden State Fur The Weekend was replaced with Furgeddaboutit. It would be nice to call such a victory the norm, but the norm is that there isn’t one. Change only happens if enough people organize to force it. It’s all too easy to settle for the status quo. In internet terms, that’s network-effect.

Corruption isn’t fate, it involves settling for it. Awareness can help, but it’s often suppressed by toxic-positivity and anti-media hostility, with a pretext about protecting the fandom by keeping it in the family. This enables more of the problem, and needs external reporting while transparency is withheld. It doesn’t have to be that way, but if it doesn’t get reported, expect soothing lies…

The lies start with good intentions. Furries love pride in community, but pride can be fair-weather and two-faced. Membership works like identity when people want to claim it, but anyone can be a furry by saying so, and then when someone behaves badly, “we don’t know them”. That includes people who have been among us for decades and run things. If we want to take pride in building and running things, that goes with media literacy and telling THE FULL TRUTH about things we’re not so proud of.

Truth or consequences

The five current stories aren’t about random bad people at random events. These involve a higher level of decisions, favor and influence at the top. When leadership fails, the community has to ask someone else for help.

All too often, selfish leaders gain power through “everyone’s welcome” enabling and negligence, even with evidence in their faces. That’s how problems go without consequences, get swept behind PR and blamed on outsiders for noticing, and become circular. PR is often used for evil this way, and deserves the same bad reputation that “the media” gets. Don’t expect any reporter to shut up and report more good news, because their job is not to be a gutless PR mouthpiece. It’s everyone’s job to make problems unwelcome if you don’t want them reported.

More attention can bring help, but independent reporting doesn’t help by itself without action. When it isn’t paid, there’s a disparity of resources and underreporting. We can’t possibly do enough after something goes wrong, compared to the need to Just. Stop. Supporting. The. Wrong. People. Stop giving them money, platforms, and excuses.

Why can’t we just have nice things by being nice and doing good? When we build community for the love of it, how do some insiders keep acting worse than made-up characters in the imaginations of hateful outsiders?

The problem is that volunteering and donation can make some people indispensable, and occasionally they take advantage of the inability to get rid of them. When someone volunteers specialized skills for free, you can’t just fire and replace them! The worst manipulators can create reliance, with cronies willing to back them with pressure or even walk out together to get what they want, like silence about abuse. Suppression starts with friends protecting friends. Twisted loyalty can be as bad as top-down authority.

It’s pretty simple to say furry events are parties and hobby fun, and there are bigger priorities. Why not just withdraw and let them die when they’re corrupt? So what if someone doubts our commitment to Sparkle Motion? What is this, a cult? The saddest part is, some people would rather have selfish power than priorities. Parties and petty power in them are the only thing they care about.

Letting problems go is self-defeating. It gives hateful outsiders the facts to say much worse than stories they can make up, handing them ammo to use against us if we don’t defuse it by transparency. Outsiders didn’t ruin our image in these stories, we already did it before they came out. That’s the truth; don’t shoot the messenger, and go organize to make better news. Even if you can’t fix broken platforms, you can demand better in real life.

This is the kind of good news we can accomplish:

Shout out to @laelaps.fyi and @heika.dog for being a guiding light of can-do community service.
dogpatch.press/2025/08/08/a…

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— Dogpatch Press (@dogpatch.press) October 13, 2025 at 10:53 PM

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

SERIES: Who runs your community? Five stories about predators with powerful friends in fandom.

Trust put a predator in a power position

In Colorado, Jacob Kovar was a nazifur sex offender who was convicted after his arrest warrant credited investigation by Dogpatch Press. Kovar did crimes as head of security for a furry convention, until they got tipped and fired him. After years in jail, Kovar returned to the community with friends in a regular furry group, while he was allegedly violating parole to be online. Kovar had his parole revoked and was arrested again in late 2025.

This is an update to a 2021 story. To review, Kovar first came to notice as right-hand man of notorious nazifur Lee “Foxler” Miller. Kovar was already a convicted sex offender when Miller made him admin for his Furry Raiders nazifur group. The Furry Raiders acted as a revolving door for numerous predators loyal to Miller. When Miller himself was charged with three child sex felonies, Kovar jumped in front of the bullet. His bright idea — while on parole — was to intimidate a witness in Miller’s case to get the charges dropped. Kovar briefly became a con head of security, and targeted Dogpatch Press with hope to cause false reporting against the witness. Instead it was reported to police, Kovar and a Furry Raider accomplice were arrested, and Kovar got a new sex offender record with jail he completed in 2024.

This update looks at what happened between Kovar’s return from jail and going back in 2025.

How did he get trusted again?

In 2019, when Kovar used a false cover identity, he became real Head of Security of a small new furry con. The con hadn’t started and he got no access to goers, but he used the title for influence for crimes. When a sex offender on parole can do that, and a reporter has to figure it out, what diligence are we getting from leaders? On the other hand, fandom and volunteerism built the new convention without established organizers, who were also misled by a predator. When the con got tipped about Kovar’s new arrest, they gave straightforward engagement and took action to fire him, so there wasn’t more criticism towards the con.

After Kovar spent several years of jail, he had his chance to do better, but in 2025, multiple sources made contact after reading about him. Some of them weren’t in the furry community and were noticing ongoing shady behavior.

Here’s what tippers believed. With Kovar’s parole conditions, he wasn’t supposed to be online, but had enablers who allegedly kept a fursuit for him and gave him an account under someone else’s name to get around parole conditions. Dogpatch Press reviewed a hobby group he used and found nearly 1800 posts by Kovar, and his identity wasn’t a well-kept secret. Members referenced knowing his workplace and shared photos with his face and tattoos. They apparently also made Kovar admin for over 150 members.

A tip was received about Kovar going back on an ankle monitor in July 2025:

Wanna laugh… read the first screenshot. The Furry Raiders have such a bad memory about their group admin Jacob Kovar and his recidivist felonies, some of them committed while using Foxler’s house. I was just tipped that Kovar is back on an ankle monitor.
dogpatch.press/2021/02/25/f…

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— Dogpatch Press (@dogpatch.press) July 29, 2025 at 12:05 PM

Kovar was arrested again in September 2025:

Pueblo County Sheriff record

Dogpatch Press was shown a private document with protected source that officially revoked his parole. A nonfurry source also sent a tip that police brought Kovar to his former workplace in the back of a squad car, to ask what contacts with minors he had at work.

Results of further investigation 

Several points stood out about Kovar’s activity in a furry hobby group:

(1) The September arrest shows Kovar really was breaking parole like tips said. Please send tips if you have more information about enablers.

(2) The chair of the con that fired Kovar in 2019 was interacting with him in the group. Reporter questions about it got straightforward engagement. The furry group didn’t belong to the con chair, who was using it for help with personal projects, and took action to make Kovar’s behavior unwelcome at the con.

(3) Why did the furry hobby group make Kovar an admin? Questions to the group owner found it wasn’t what it looked like. The owner said that the admin title was just a tag, and he wasn’t part of the actual admin chat. Kovar told them he was making effort to change and be a better person, while downplaying his charges to mislead about what they were. The owner was surprised to see legal records, said he was misinformed, and took action about it.

In personal life, sometimes people choose to stay friends with someone who got charges and give them second chances. In this case, it appears that a recidivist who manipulated trust and power hasn’t changed that much.

Furries may learn that fan-based loyalty can be vulnerable to manipulation. We can be understanding but ask for better. Some leaders who hide suspicious behavior can be criticized for corruption, but straightforward engagement makes a big difference.

MORE IN THE SERIES

• Tennessee furry group leaders corrupted with predators and drug death; two evidence documents.
• Mephit Furmeet put one of the world’s most infamous zoophiles on stage to represent the fandom.
• UK furry event founder and outed zoosadist ring member is still running events 7 years later.
• Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

SERIES: Who runs your community? Five stories about predators with powerful friends in fandom.

Corruption behind the record-breaking charity 

Florida’s Mare Fair is an adults-only My Little Pony convention. It crosses fandom for a kid’s show with the edgy chanboard culture seen in news reporting about the MLP fandom’s Nazi problem. The con is organized by and for 4chan users, and bounced between 3 venues in 3 years while gaining a reputation for hateful behavior. It keeps raising criticism about swastika displays and racist dogwhistles, while critics face backlash for protesting. One critic tells Dogpatch Press: “Nazis and racists used Mare Fair as a hate safe space, because they couldn’t spread it at reputable cons… it became clear that management did not care.” Defenders have pushed back with denial and apologism about the con raising charity for horses.

Mare Fair is run by Snowpity Inc, headed by Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope, who founded it by milking fandom with silver coin sales and his own cryptocurrency. This allegedly ties con finances to shady donors with crypto-wealth, who donate so much that it breaks charity records set by other cons — conveniently buying a PR front. Behind the front of helping horses, Hope and the con management teamed up with Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster to help run Mare Fair. Foster is a zoophile who abuses horses, according to horse rescuers who claim Foster manipulated power over their operations, after keeping a crippled horse alive in pain and using a baby horse for years of sex abuse. On top of that, Hope runs his own website that hosts bestiality videos (evidence below).

If Mare Fair desperately needed PR to cover up zoophiles at the top, consider what balls it takes to taint their PR by spreading channer dogwhistles with weak plausible-deniability. The 2025 conbook is full of explicit adult references, but more to the point, the con logo design features a horse vagina. Hope’s cryptocurrency, named Mare Bits, also has a horse vagina in the design. The silver coins that Hope pushed are loaded with more 4chan and horse vagina references. What a coincidence.

Ambition leads to expansion, and Foster and Hope teamed up to found a new con in Maryland, Neighcon. Apparently it’s meant to recall the defunct Bronycon in Baltimore. Both men are on the articles of incorporation. However, even fandom tied to 4chan isn’t comfortable with the corruption. Recent protest forced Neighcon to issue vague PR about executive change.

Background about fandoms and under-reporting the story

Bronies, the adult male fans for My Little Pony, emerged around 2010 as irony-loaded followers of a mainstream TV show. Sincere fans young and old have also been around for a long time. Their scene has some basic differences from furry fandom, because of the influence of marketing, merchandising and professional talent under one media property. It rises and falls with popularity of the show, and isn’t as active as a decade ago. However, many furries are also pony fans, and there isn’t that much difference in what they do.

This made it weird when researching this story found that some corners of pony fandom like to brew up forced tribalism against furries, like with hateful stickers and anti-LGBT slurs. This story isn’t for partisan rivalry. It’s by request from furry-adjacent pony fans, because no other media has investigated the problems with Mare Fair. These fans had opinions about why pony fan news has only reported favorable fluff about Mare Fair.

One outlet, Horse News, provided crucial info a decade ago for Dogpatch Press reporting about a scammer who jumped from pony to furry fandom. Now, it only posts a few times a year and one pony fan source who spoke for this story calls Horse News “a joke… for gossip and drama”. Another says “they pose as news but are 4chan memers.” Its Mare Fair coverage only has a fluffy interview, and a 2023 press release about the con starting up. It spread coin sales without mentioning a conflict of interest, where coin seller and Mare Fair manager Joshua Hope was editor for Horse News. Still, the comments had early grumbles of suspicion:

Another prolific outlet, Equestria Daily, got this opinion from one pony fan source: “It’s mostly just one guy now, Sethisto, who posts fluff like China getting their own version of the show so they are getting the best merch.” Equestria Daily’s Mare Fair coverage is censored of criticism (9/8/25). It amounts to bland notices like “Mare Fair largely follows board culture over on 4chan’s /mlp/” (1/17/24), and short blurbs of congratulation:

“We’ve hit another huge fandom milestone! Those crazy rich 4channers have done it again with a pony convention record breaking $103,483 earned for the horsies…” (10/10/24)

A source gives more Equestria Daily background: “Sethisto fired his right-hand staffer, Calpain, for trying to get him to stop harboring problem people with right-wing bias. Channers doxxed Calpain and got him fired as a teacher. Now the same people are harassing critics in defense of Mare Fair.”

If pony fan news won’t investigate for public interest, some fans turned to a faithful furry newshound for help. It isn’t about which scene matters more, it’s about protecting people and animals from abuse in all stories in this series, where furries get criticized too.

Digging in to chanboard influence and shady behavior at Mare Fair

Sources for this story draw a direct line from 2017, when 4chan merged /mlp/ and nazi sub-boards, as an April Fool’s joke that never really went away.

They say pony fan cons boosted careers for professional talent, and many staffers worked for multiple conventions, which helped to shape the fandom. It was noticeable when edgy online humor bled in and caught protest on social media. This escalated to backlash towards “liberal complainers” and antigay/nazi jokes. Eventually, deeply involved people quit fandom due to “noticing weird stuff”. They mention people carrying sex dolls out in the open and Foalcon (the same as cub-porn in furry fandom.)

Mare Fair had weird looks from the start. Beyond being 18+ in contrast to mostly all-ages cons, and generally coming from a shady base, there was suspicion about ownership by Joshua Hope with a conflict of interest for pushing crypto. One DJ said the con insisted on paying in crypto:

At the first Mare Fair in 2023, nazi behavior cropped up in the shape of a swastika made with human bodies by the pool. Initially indifferent watchers started protesting, but some let it go as a fluke with hopes for improvement the next year. After the con had to move to a new hotel, the same thing kept happening, among many racist memes. Some panels, art, and dealing at Mare Fair come directly from makers of popular racist memes. There was cosplay of show character Applejack as a plantation owner with slave zebras, and a character “Aryanne” created as a nazi horse. Some of this became merchandise like mass-produced plushes. That’s deeper than a few bad apples to excuse or put out of sight. Allegedly some of the behavior was so extreme that it earned bans in con groups, but a banned extremist was still listed as a top donor.

This is a brief summary to avoid getting into the weeds and playing channer-peekaboo games, but photo evidence speaks for itself.

A source says: “all the public got officially was statements of platitudes from the nebulous executive team. Unlike other pony conventions, Mare Fair did not like to include the names of its executives in its online communications.” Some official con statements contradicted statements from manager’s personal accounts.

In one case, the DJ who said he was offered crypto payment was treated as a liar. In another, the con pretended manager Joshua Hope’s clear words were “misinterpreted” about wanting to ban Pride flags as “political”. (What other cons get to that point after hosting swastikas?) The Pride backpedaling went like you would expect with fans of a wholesome pony show.

Lip service about bad behavior didn’t change who was causing it — while the con repeatedly lost hotels — and “privately, Mare Fair actively tried to suppress people from talking about it, including threatening fake legal action.” The failure of substantial response put attention on the top.

Problems with staff, and the darkest part of the story

If Mare Fair likes organizing with 4chan, channer-peekaboo games, and brushing problems behind PR, then take what’s known as indicative for what’s hidden. (This story protects sources for safety; let’s not hear Mare Fair defenders have a problem with anonymity NOW!)

A brony in North Carolina, named Searing Skies, was the subject of a staffers’ official-tripcode post shown to Dogpatch Press. It identified Searing Skies as staff for Mare Fair at some point. It claimed he was fired due to being a convicted zoosadist who tortured and killed animals with fire in 2017-2021. Make of that what you will, but there’s also Searing Skies’ own social media posts that represent Mare Fair support:

• A defense for Foalcon
• Asking “what does the confederate flag have to do with slavery“?
• Boasting about participating in a group swastika display at Mare Fair.

Back to manager Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope and his background:

• He started out with making Youtube videos for bronies.
• His LinkedIn page shows he was an organizer for the Republican party in Florida in 2012-2013 while part of early Brony fandom.
• Source: “I knew the name Corpulent Brony years ago… eventually stopped seeing tweets from him which I assume was because of exile for being an asshole. After 4chan brought racists and Nazis into MLP space, Corp probably worked for a number of years to gather enough support and money to get that Orlando airport hotel.”
• His coin sales used 4chan as a base for fundraising and gathering supportive crypto people.
• Mare Fair corporate entity Snowpity Inc lists Joshua Hope as the main fundraising contact.

Now we get to the darkest part. Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster was named as a zoophile. His online footprint was scrubbed to suppress notice, but there’s still traces of pro-bestiality belief. Is this someone you can trust with animals that can’t consent? How did someone like this get power over cons and horse rescues, like a bad priest at a church with authority over children?

• He reblogged a Tumblr blog named Prettymares that defends zoophilia as a sexuality.
• Sources believe Prettymares is his too… guess why it was scrubbed like his Lightsolver blog.
• Creepy Twitter discussion: “I need to know if this horse is flirting with me” — he wants pictures.
• On Reddit, Foster’s username was Antnoob. It was deleted but this archive matches his name to posts left behind.
• Posts from Foster’s Antnoob account are live on a Horses subreddit topic, “Artificial Insemination (AI) is rape”.
• These match an Antnoob post that supports bestiality if people “care about animals.”

Is Lightsolver / Antnoob still staff at Mare Fair?

I’ve heard the recording… pic.twitter.com/11qFMCqG7o

— Amy New () (@AmyNewBlue) August 29, 2025

WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT — Leaked board meeting audio about Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster preying on rescues

Below is an hour long audio file from a Discord voice board meeting. It leaked in August 2025 and covers the discovery of alarming events with Kyle in 2022. It gets some denial as fake, on forums where it circulated, but Dogpatch Press made contact with sources who were present at the meeting to verify it. Full names aren’t being given in text, but are identified in the audio. It features staff of Mare Fair, an operator of a horse rescue and con charity partner (Kim), and a horse rescue president and licensed psychologist (Christina.)

This link has the file and here’s a summary.

 

7:00 – 10:00 Introducing Christina as president of a Missouri horse rescue and sanctuary. Kyle/Lightsolver volunteered there for over 10 years. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who relocated from running a large nonprofit in Louisiana, working with at-risk youth using equines for therapy. Her license includes an oath to protect vulnerable populations as a mandated reporter, including animals. She has no personal vendetta, and didn’t reach out to the con, she was contacted about strange incidents. Everything she will say is the whole truth, and her first-hand personal experience.

10:00 – 12:00 Describing the Missouri rescue. Christina was brought in to develop its therapeutic arm with animal assisted therapies, and became president and general manager. They are very large, serious, and accredited, with over 200 horses and 200 acres, and corporate sponsors. They do continuing education with practicing veterinarians, teach vet tech students, have a resident vet with a full medical wing, and a one of a kind 4H and show program.

12:00 – 15:00 Kyle’s power over the rescue. Christina didn’t know when she got there that Kyle was deep into every level of everything technical. A new arena was built for the therapeutic wing and Kyle got involved with wiring for all the cameras. He wasn’t supposed to be part of that, she was introduced through him taking more and more control. Kyle was temperamental but with 10 years of involvement he had many loyal people. The founder had a new husband, Ken, who befriended Kyle and made him best man at the wedding.

Kyle Foster with one of his victims Ziggy

15:00 – 20:00 Trouble with Kyle. In summer 2022, Kyle didn’t come to work, with no contact for 4-5 days. It was very bizarre, and everyone was worried, making a safety issue with a large property, were cameras and fields checked? They divided up checking hospitals and jails, and Christina would check cameras. Kyle always wanted to be on night shift, and owned a badly crippled horse named Sugar and a mini horse named Ziggy. Christina found camera footage from Sugar’s stall of Kyle sexually abusing her. Kyle was found in jail, and Ken bailed him out and brought him back. That’s when Kyle spilled his guts about his love for Sugar and having no relationships with people. Kyle had trouble for child pornography on his computer at a university he worked at. He showed the rescue staff bestiality videos he made on his own phone, so security footage didn’t even have to be revealed.

20:00 – 23:00 Fallout about a predator inside the Missouri rescue. The founders were in a reality warp, torn by being friends with Kyle for a decade, with pressure to give him another chance. Christina is a professional who knew they had to protect animals and couldn’t allow him on the property. She provided contacts for Kyle to get professional help, and he rejected it, saying they were the ones with the problem and he should be allowed to love whoever he wants. It was a “big brawl” with members of the board. Christina stood firm about compromising her license and profession, because an accredited organization that claims to protect animals couldn’t tolerate sexual abuse. She gave an ultimatum about resigning and reporting as a mandated reporter. Donors were contacted, board members resigned, she was brought on board, and Kyle was ordered not to come on the property, but still manipulated people to try sneaking horses out for him.

23:00 – 27:00 Health of Kyle’s victims. Ownership of Sugar and the other victim Ziggy was forced to be signed over to the sanctuary, and Kyle could never come back. There was extreme effort to verify Sugar’s inability to walk, “a complete tragedy that never should have gone that long” while she was kept alive in agony. Kyle said “she never tried to get away” to justify abusing Sugar, tried to stop her from being euthanized, and says Christina killed her. Independent vets were astonished that it was allowed to go so long.

27:00 – 30:00 Getting away from Kyle. When Christina took management it took a year to detach Kyle’s control from multiple layers of security, and get back access to their own assets. Kyle’s proximity is a threat and he’s extremely vindictive. The rescue purpose is to take care of the animals, and there are laws and registries for child abuse, elder abuse, and domestic abuse, but none for bestiality. Christina is a firsthand witness of Kyle going to other rescues; she didn’t pursue him and thought it was done, but she was contacted about problems. The rescue board had to put Ziggy in protective hiding so Kyle can never find him.

30:00 – 36:00 Sugar’s abuse. Sugar went through constant agony while being kept alive for Kyle to sexually abuse for years for his own gratification.

36:00 – 40:00 Legal case. In Florida, the other rescue owner Kim appreciates help to protect her 28 horses from abuse. This is speaking the truth, documented and witnessed despite fear of Kyle suing them for revenge, to carry out their mission to protect animals. Kyle’s version will be that a mean lady took control and killed his horse. They got the law involved immediately, but believe this has left state level and become a federal case, so it’s now hidden without records.

40:00 – 53:00 Manipulation of the con’s Florida rescue. Abuse of Ziggy started from being a baby. The board meeting was so this doesn’t happen to other rescues. Kim discusses health problems that made it hard to deal with the hell of putting up with Kyle. Kyle manipulated her to do what he wanted, while others warned her about something wrong. They learned that Kyle hid his past with the Missouri rescue. He took control of the Florida rescue’s operations and kept Kim from access while trying to get to her horses. He wasn’t able to touch them, but Kim had to stay quiet while getting help, in fear of control and revenge. She brought Christina to tell the story, even though Kyle freaked out and threatened her and her rescue to try and stop her. Kim asks for help to save the horses.

(End of audio summary.)

Art commission that Kyle got of Sugar, matching other evidence that he really had these horses.

A vulnerable rescue

Two professional horse rescuers risked their careers to sound the alarm about a predator they had to fight hard to stop. Notice that Christina won change by alerting donors — how likely is that with Mare Fair’s crypto donors? Their support has been pushing back while records get deleted, with con staff alleged to scrub forums they help run. Please reach out if you have tips. 

Sources say Kim is retired and spending her retirement on rescue, and association with channers led to isolation from other professionals. One believes: “the rescue lost other sponsors until they became increasingly, then almost wholly dependent on Mare Fair. To the point where staffers started volunteering at the farm. THIS GUY Kyle was one of them…” Another says: “It was weird to see an 18+ pony con raising money just for 1 horse rescue. The first time I thought about it was when they were selling MLP porn art packs to raise money for the charity. I just couldn’t believe the organization would be ok with it.”

Even a retired person with health challenges was able to take action. Now fandom is empowered with inside reporting about the corruption.

Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope’s real bestiality video hosting

Is anyone still holding out skepticism that Mare Fair management was in the dark about an abuser inside while being trustworthy to help animals? Here’s a clincher. Hope made a video hosting website, pony.tube, with dogwhistling like his other projects — that goes all the way to actively, personally supporting full bestiality videos — humans abusing actual horses.

The pony tube About page names it as Hope’s. Lightsolver was named as a Patreon funder. The moderation policy: “NSFW videos (including of actual horses) are welcome, but please mark them as NSFW.” That info was pointed out in a tip in the last month, but just scrubbed. The page now says “updated 2025-10-21.” Archives of the page show the message existed for years prior to founding Mare Fair. Hello, damage control!

Scrubbed.

The General tab is still labeled “Omnia vincit cunnus equæ ”, which translates to “The horse’s cunt conquers all.” Compare to Hope’s silver coins that were labeled in latin “The heat (of a mare) never ends.” Just joking, except…

A source says “I tried searching the site on Google, and the first hits that popped up were bestiality porn posted on it years ago, with a comment where Corp saw it and welcomed it on his site.” 

CAUTION: Archives verify the pages exist, but don’t show explicit video. Hope commented approval on the video of a man sexually abusing an actual horse. The video was recently scrubbed, but there are explicit screens, and it was up for 5 years with the comment from Hope: “Nice, removed you from the autoblacklist.” There’s many more on the site, like a 10 minute compilation full of people abusing actual horses, and they show up in Google results. It was never very hidden.

The problem doesn’t go away by getting rid of one guy

Let’s keep it short and say that this evidence would be the kiss of death for events of every fan organizer involved, if fandoms hold a standard for honest organizers and protecting others from abuse.

Mare Fair looks like it isn’t doing well when it keeps losing hotels, but Joshua Hope, Kyle Foster, and some other enabling associates founded Neighcon together under the corporate entity Harmonic Ventures. Even if things get moved around on paper, the corruption isn’t going anywhere without being forced to.

Mare Fair is homeless.
Nazi sympathizer Corpulent Brony says the venue is not allowing the event next year in an alleged breach of contract.
Corpulent says it is not because of the Nazi Pony plushies, the swastika windmills sold in the vendor hall, or some “salon”.

Nazi Bronies Fuck Off.

[image or embed]

— SherbetAlex (@sherbetalex.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 12:33 PM

The day of the leak.

MORE IN THE SERIES

• Tennessee furry group leaders corrupted with predators and drug death; two evidence documents.
• Mephit Furmeet put one of the world’s most infamous zoophiles on stage to represent the fandom.
• UK furry event founder and outed zoosadist ring member is still running events 7 years later.
• Nazifur sex offender keeps going in and out of jail while misleading furries to trust him.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues

SERIES: Who runs your community? Five stories about predators with powerful friends in fandom.

No consequences for participating in the worst crime ring to ever emerge in fandom.

A series of international furry events under the name Club Animalz (and other names) has been held in Manchester and Berlin since 2017. The founder, Foxb/Foxbearance, AKA Ben Mills, was exposed as an animal rapist in the 2018 zoosadist leaks. Mills raped animals on video, in a fursuit made for him, that he used for years. In 2025, his events are still popular and partnered with large cons in the mainstream of furry like Confuzzled.

The evidence in the 2018 zoosadist leaks led to multiple arrests, featured in a TV true crime docuseries, The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster. The show interviews court workers and hardened police veterans who quit their careers from the trauma of seeing the brutal torture of animal victims. Lawyers went over the show, and if it could be challenged in court, it wouldn’t have been made. The leaks are unquestionably real, but hundreds of participants got away.

Foxb was one of the participants who never faced justice. His messages to a ringleader, Levi “Snakething” Simmons (who is now jailed for 25 years) discussed making “zoosuit” abuse videos with a tag for the party he ran.

In 2025, Foxb has the same power he always had. Dogpatch Press was recently contacted with a tip:

Foxb/Foxbearance, otherwise known as Rutt, Rutt Pup and their real name, Ben Mills, one of two directors of Club Animalz, Doggy weekend, HotDogz and other events, is an outed zoophile. After they were exposed via the zoosadism leaks in 2018, they now run events in the UK, Germany and elsewhere.

Foxb’s Barq profile directly points them to running said events. A search via Companies House, a publicly accessible site to obtain company information within the UK, places Foxb (Ben Mills) as one of two directors of ‘Big Red Bone Limited‘ (archived) which is linked from the bottom of ‘Doggy Weekend‘ and ‘Club Animalz‘.

Either people have forgotten, just don’t care, or stay unaware, which would be a shame considering most people in the fandom would reject such people who subject animals to awful things. People should be more aware of those they are supporting by going to these events. Zoos have no place in the fandom.

Information was obtained via Heikadog’s zoophile evidence list, along with hosted links to images of said abuse.

Check the zoophile evidence list (and read about Heika’s anti-zoophile community moderation.)

The leaked chats match videos that would get reporting shut down if posted in full. Face concealment and short statutory limits makes known loopholes to get away with abuse, but Foxb posted his Rutt Pup fursuit as made for him in 2012 and kept it for years after with no defense about abusing animals in it while organizing furry events.

The events run by this zoosadist ring member are now partnered with “mainstream UK furry conventions, including Confuzzled in 2024”. -Wikifur.

• Animalz announcement on Twitter
• Confuzzled announcement on website and Twitter

Individual event accounts run by Foxb/Ben Mills have been added to the Heikadog evidence list with the “zoophile supporter” label.

MORE IN THE SERIES

• Tennessee furry group leaders corrupted with predators and drug death; two evidence documents.
• Mephit Furmeet put one of the world’s most infamous zoophiles on stage to represent the fandom.
• Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues.
• Nazifur sex offender keeps going in and out of jail while misleading furries to trust him.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

SERIES: Who runs your community? Five stories about predators with powerful friends in fandom.

Charles Alexander Berry (Toggle Rat) runs NAMBLA for zoophiles

For years, furry conventions have hosted Charles Alexander Berry, AKA Toggle Rat. He runs a podcast that launders animal molesting as identity, like NAMBLA for zoophiles, while hiding their victims offstage. In 2021 he was outed as a zoophile with his husband running a furry group in Tennessee. Many people’s effort to protect the fandom went unheard in August 2025, when despite protest, Berry was given a platform on stage at Mephit Furmeet, the furry con running since the 1990’s in Memphis, TN.

Before Berry was unmasked and protested, furries who were unaware saw him play ordinary music at conventions. Meanwhile his fursona Toggle Rat made voice-changed propaganda for his zoophile podcast. It does “openly positive and joyful” faux-identity-activism, based on mental gymnastics to get around the line of consent, making otherwise unobtainable validation for predators whose victims who can’t consent. Berry/Toggle touts zoophiles as secret community influencers, similar to pedophiles boasting about running churches. Take the boasting for validation with a heap of salt, of course:

Here’s how NAMBLA set the example; if you wanted to know more — and you shouldn’t — they claimed to be about free speech for child advocates and history lovers, manipulatively omitting the abuse while glorifying “boy love” as a tradition from before there were laws against molesting. All legal, they say. Pedophiles have tried and failed to sell this at furry cons, but Toggle’s shady echo chamber has wormed into furry crossover.

When predators target furry cons, you may ask how many are convicted abusers. Or you might ask how many of Berry’s zoo crew haven’t been busted yet for conspiracy to abuse in their cybercrime underworld full of illicit media trading. His podcast co-founder friend was the felon in this headline: “Coke kingpin Douglas Spink busted for running bestiality farm in Washington state.” Another co-hosting friend was Sean Patrick Kraese, AKA Quantum Kitty, a US Marine and zoophile-necrophile who was convicted in 2024 for abusing animals and distributing videos of it, after fouling his neighborhood with burn piles for their bones.

If you smell smoke, there’s fire with these organized predators, caught or uncaught. Complaining of thoughtcrime, bigotry, kink shaming or “cancel culture” about this would be like calling NAMBLA the champions of democracy. It makes Charles Alexander Berry one of the last people you’d ever want as a regular con-goer or on stage representing the furry fandom.

Charles Alexander Berry on stage at Mephit Furmeet (with band name Exit Mouse), a long-ignored problem despite years of protest.

Consistently attending Mephit Furmeet since 2013, with favor from con management

Years protest went unheard in August 2025, when a local source at Mephit Furmeet said: “He performed at the masquerade, it was set up to be a talent show type thing.” This wasn’t a random bad person attending under their noses, or just not taking action. Management directed him face-to-face as someone they’d hosted for years, while approving who would represent furry fandom on their stage.

This is on record with one of Berry’s known aliases making a public schedule for 27 panels he would attend at the 2025 con. There were at least 4 blown chances to curate the stage that hosted an infamous zoophile:

• Friday Masquerade signup. Berry was one of 10 attendees overseen by con director Blue Heeler Sunfire.
• Saturday Music jam. Berry was one of 16 attendees overseen by con director Blue Heeler Sunfire.
• Sunday Masquerade rehearsal. Berry was one of 5 attendees overseen by con director Blue Heeler Sunfire.
• Masquerade. Berry was one of 22 attendees overseen by con director Blue Heeler Sunfire.

Blue Heeler’s schedule shows these were the ONLY events he had to run, besides a Christian Fur panel to “discuss our beliefs and share our views”. (Do those views include giving a non-judgemental stage to an unrepentant sex abuser, while directing small panels with him throughout a weekend?) Blue Heeler is no hapless newcomer. He’s an old-time furry since the 1990’s, a musician like Berry, and Mephit Furmeet’s Directors page names him as equal to the con chair.

Charles Alexander Berry’s past attendance at Mephit Furmeet is on record with his other known aliases for over a decade.

• 2024 Schedule (archive)
• 2023 Schedule (archive)
• 2022 Schedule (archive)
• 2019 Schedule (archive)
• 2018 Schedule (archive)
• 2017 Schedule (archive)
• 2016 Schedule (archive)
• 2015 Schedule (archive)
• 2014 Schedule (archive)
• 2013 Schedule (archive)

There’s a gap, where a source says “that was around when he was called out locally, when all the videos were coming out.” The con may have plausible deniability before then… yet Berry kept coming back for years after alerts about a zoophile they had officially promoted for a long time. (Berry is “Buck Riley” with Exit Mouse):

This won’t change until it’s forced in the open

Dogpatch Press contacted Blue Heeler for comment, but he didn’t answer. It took two tries to get another director to break the silence with a two sentence reply.

Apparently, public pressure and making a PR issue is how to get results. (Especially when animal victims can’t report themselves, making it almost never a police priority). A source in the Tennessee furry scene has an opinion that puts some responsibility on everyone in the community to stay loud, even if it needs outside allies to protect them:

“Many people have gone to staff, and after talking to them, I do believe he’s got them bullied and will attempt to sue the con. He has a history of biting back, someone tried to dig on him, and he went as far to try and get them fired, as well as his husband making threats.

With friends freaking out that they allow him and others to attend, this year was really the stand out as far as his appearances have gone, he’s kinda hidden away before, but is getting more bold with his sense of ‘yall WONT do anything about me you CANT’.”

As factual as Berry’s outing is, the problem isn’t that he could sue and win, but that a small con couldn’t afford to defend. Having a director actively approve someone on stage isn’t just a “scared of threats” situation, especially with over a decade of favor; but a small one-weekend event isn’t the fandom police to make predators unwelcome 24/7/365. This is where collective solidarity has power.

The community took action when Berry was outed, and his husband was in charge of a Telegram chat for the entire area of Memphis. They made their own group to get away from him and make him irrelevant. Sometimes, a con’s management can make that an appropriate action towards the con itself.

After Blue Heeler didn’t answer Dogpatch Press request for comment, another director gave this official response from Mephit Furmeet:

This is what you get for years of protest. Finally, a vague reply, maybe given grudgingly after two tries by a reporter. Maybe they shouldn’t say too much, but do you think a director should have approved stage appearances over years of protest? Imagine if we had the president of NAMBLA itself using our community spaces, and making people afraid or resigned to it with no end in sight.

Sources believe the con won’t bother much more about it, because Berry is moving to another state soon. In fandom, the priests are self-moving to new churches… if we let them. Time to inform those who care there. If furries don’t want to be smeared as predators by hateful outsiders, don’t let predators use your spaces and give them a reason.

MORE IN THE SERIES

• Tennessee furry group leaders corrupted with predators and drug death; two evidence documents.
• UK furry event founder and outed zoosadist ring member is still running events 7 years later.
• Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues.
• Nazifur sex offender keeps going in and out of jail while misleading furries to trust him.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

SERIES: Who runs your community? Five stories about predators with powerful friends in fandom.

“We need justice”

MurfreesFurs, a furry group in Tennessee with around 1000 members, was the subject of an evidence document with 30 sources alleging that organizers covered up nazis and zoophiles in their inner circle, and failed to protect the community from predators. Sources face retaliation, and Dogpatch Press was pressured for suppression before even reporting. The shocking thing is, it was only part of the problem. A second evidence document came out independently from the first, alleging more serious complicity by MurfreesFurs organizers in CSAM, drug dealing and a fentanyl death. Sources include police reports and prison records.

The first and followup documents:

• Murfreesfurs: Tennessee’s Most Problematic Furry Community (450+ pages)
• Murfreesfurs & A Problematic Furry Community East TN Doc (140+ pages, with announcement channel) 

Reading almost 600 pages is a challenge, so it was boiled down by a two hour phone call with authors of the second doc, who are known but being protected from backlash here. The goal:

“If they’re responsible for a death, we firmly hope that justice is served for the family, and if kids and animals were harmed, we need justice for that too. It’s not enough to get them temporarily out of one hobby group and trust that they won’t just rebrand and come back.”

What Tennessee furry groups were involved

Regional furry groups involved include one for East Tennessee, and another one closer to the state center, who serve a few hundred members. There was no mention of Western Tennessee/Memphis (where Mephit Furmeet has been held since the 1990’s). Sources say that territorial issues are common regionally, but good group collaboration also reaches across states. There’s other center-regional groups, including one for Knoxville TN; and MurfreesFurs, which stood out from others and became ground zero for problems.

MurfreesFurs was unusual in size with around 1000 members from “all over”, not gathered organically by people knowing each other, but by recruiting with paid ads on TikTok. It targeted children as a supposed safe place for all ages. The main organizer of MurfreesFurs, Cade, was a minor when he started growing the group a few years ago.

Cade is a lynchpin of corruption in both evidence docs, although by serving as front guy and enabler to an even worse inner circle, including people who were already jailed. The circle was tied by co-housing, poly dating, and drug dealing protected by the management. Sources say these tight ties to Cade’s official team made conflicts of interest for coverups and grudges, so MurfreesFurs enabled predators and crime instead of serving community interest.

Common patterns and how much bigger this gets

It’s a story of patterns in common with many other corruption stories. Nazis get sympathy because they are friends, but their targets don’t get sympathy to protect them from bigotry. Nazi stuff is kept on the side in secret groups. A fellow organizer is caught conspiring on zoophile forums to rape animals, and gets no public consequence, just sympathy to protect reputations from being outed. There’s tears about a zoophile label ruining his life, but no concern about victims or alerting the community when he claims “trust me, I got better”, like a church moving a pedophile priest. Known drug dealers help run a group as a front for each other. Whistleblowers are smeared with manipulative labels against clout and cancel culture, and PR to keep the status quo.

From the first evidence doc:

The first evidence doc about Cade’s MurfreesFurs was treated as a tip of the iceberg by sources for the second, who said: “They have no clue how much bigger this gets.” The second evidence doc names more names.

It says evidence of drug dealing by Cade’s fellow organizer, Filthy, was carrying on the business of Filthy’s already-jailed friend, Zammy. Filthy was labeled Zammy’s “ambassador” and was head of a house called Musky Mansion. The possessions of Zammy were being kept for him at Musky Mansion until he got out of jail, and included a hard drive full of CSAM. House members were tasked with cleaning it, with jokes making it an open secret.

Meanwhile, Filthy was Cade’s official MurfreesFurs events coordinator. Cade’s boyfriend Dibbo was head of security for taking reports, making a conflict of interest for protecting the community from his own team. People at Musky Mansion expected to clean Zammy’s CSAM hard drive were biased in relationships, with the whole situation kept quiet under fear of police with drugs and guns in the house. Corruption was suppressed until their dating drama, high conflict, grudges and accusations at each other helped break it open. The hard drive was revealed as an afterthought! It has now been reported to police by people in the circle who decided to do the right thing, helped by community members who overcame suppression that silenced early whistleblowing.

Cavan “Zammy” Works – from doc and Rankin County Jail current inmate list

Fentanyl death, money, cons, and justice? 

Remember, the second document emerged independently from the first. The sources don’t know each other. It brings more evidence about MurfreesFurs organizer corruption on these points:

• Events coordinator Filthy took over Zammy’s drug dealing and possessions while he is jailed.
• Filthy’s house members were asked to clean up Zammy’s CSAM that went to police.
• The coverup of a fentanyl death linked to Zammy, of a victim named Prettywizard.

Here’s what the authors said to end our phone call:

MurfreesFurs management helped run a drug business under their watchful eye WHILE THEY ADVERTISE TO KIDS. We’ve been observing for a while and it keeps getting worse. We don’t know how many people could be involved.

Why is there no accountability for the death of Prettywizard? A fentanyl death could bring manslaughter or murder charges. We don’t know why, but suspect loopholes in making a case. The victim’s mother attended Furry Weekend Atlanta in hope to confront Zammy, with con staff prepared to step in if it got ugly.

We know Zammy plans to return to cons when he gets out of jail, and expect him to resume drug dealing there, like he has always done.

The drug dealing business that continued when he went to jail WAS MEANT TO FUND A CON!

We also found close ties to a rave event named RAVEFURREST and have taken action about it.

We took care to put many links in the doc, and took this to the level of law enforcement, with a case number you can look up.

If they’re responsible for a death, we firmly hope that justice is served for the family, and if kids and animals were harmed, we need justice for that too. It’s not enough to get them temporarily out of one hobby group and trust that they won’t just rebrand and come back. Who runs a furry group isn’t our big priority, but if MurfreesFurs continues to exist, we hope they get better people in charge. The community doesn’t feel safe. Voices are being silenced under threats of bans. 

Bringing this out wouldn’t be possible without a team. It’s a collective effort that takes a village, and is nobody’s one doing, but we’re thankful to everyone who has priorities in the right place.

Cade’s management recently moved to a Discord group, with staff replacement that is being criticized as performative PR, after being forced by extreme effort to expose corruption that continues to be suppressed. Critics want permanent resignations from the community and complete public transparency.

MORE IN THE SERIES

• Mephit Furmeet put one of the world’s most infamous zoophiles on stage to represent the fandom.
• UK furry event founder and outed zoosadist ring member is still running events 7 years later.
• Mare Fair enabled shady crypto nazis and a zoophile organizer who preyed on horse rescues.
• Nazifur sex offender keeps going in and out of jail while misleading furries to trust him.

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Remember Popples? Of course you don't! Merch, Sweet Tees and stuff: https://culturally-fd-merchandise.creator-spring.com/ Support Culturally F'd: https://www.patreon.com/culturallyfd Listen in on TEMPO TALKS with Tempe O'Kun https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIPk-itLl1jPyIK2c7mK-LpbvfDNqfcSW Check out Tempe O'Kun's books "Sixes Wild" and "Windfall" here: http://furplanet.com/shop/?affillink=YOUTU2907 Here's a playlist of his other Culturally F'd videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIPk-itLl1jPS7tnT4hdJwBI-CeLF8Kb_

This may sound like a weird way to start a review but hear me out: Remember the 2021 movie Malignant? That James Wan horror film where a woman has a twin literally inside her? OK, remember how the film was a typical horror film up until the last act where it becomes this insane action flick? That’s how I describe Double Fine’s latest game Keeper: It starts out as one genre but suddenly changes to another genre out of nowhere and does it really well.

In Keeper, you play as a lighthouse that has gained sentience and, teamed up with a bird named Twig, you set forth on a journey to a nearby mountain, along the way solving at times simple puzzles while enjoying this serene, beautiful, yet almost haunting world. Truth be told, I really didn’t know what was going on as the story is very non-existent. You’re just this lighthouse going from Point A to Point B. There is no dialogue, which makes sense (I mean, you’re a walking building and the only other inhabitants on this island are creatures and sentient automatons), and while there are some environmental bits to explain the lore of the world, I still was pretty much lost with the story, especially around the ending portions, which I won’t spoil. But, weirdly enough? The lack of a coherent story is also a small plus as it allowed me to explore the world at my own leisure and really soak in this strange and beautiful island the game is set on. Not since the Zeno Clash games have I played something that is this haunting yet beautiful at the same time. The world has this Seussian look to it but if it was done to match the album cover of Plastic Beach by The Gorillaz and it’s like nothing I’ve seen in a while. Every area you visit all have this unique look and feel to them and I found myself, at times, stopping to just soak in the atmosphere and beauty. I love how there are zero UI elements or pop-ups, outside of a button prompt that pops up at select intervals, allowing the screen to be fully clean of excess and allowing the player to enjoy the art direction. Truth be told, I almost wished this game was more open-world then it was as I really just wanted to explore off the beaten path. Yeah, you technically can if you’re achievement hunting, but sometimes I just want to explore on my own free will, you know? What helps sell the idea of this being a world beyond our imagination is the soundtrack. Composed by David Earl, the soundtrack has this ethereal feel to it mixed with moments of peace and tranquility and intensity when the need arises. In fact, it almost reminded me of the band Enigma at points, specifically their song Return To Innocence, and the animated Animusic series. There is one track that did make me raise an eyebrow and it’s one mid-way through the game. I could very well be wrong, but it sounded a bit like the song ‘Suicide Is Painless’, the theme to M*A*S*H, which is an interesting choice of a song to take inspiration from, if you ask me. That aside, the soundtrack is another of this games strongest suits and it’s one I wouldn’t mind owning a copy of to listen to when I just feel like relaxing. On a side note, and this could very well just be me, but I noticed that when the lighthouse is walking, their footsteps seem to be synced in time to the music at points. Nothing too special there but it was something I noticed and I do like when games sync something up to the backing music.

Where I felt the game did kinda falter slightly was in the actual gameplay department. On the whole, the game is a standard walking simulator with simple puzzles to solve along the way, with the very first one being controlling your lighthouse and I need to admit something here: I almost dropped the game because of the intro section. What happens is that, once the lighthouse gains sentience, you start to walk and, what feels like every step, fall down. I’m not kidding when I was thinking that the game would be forcing me to keep my lighthouse balanced with every step and that almost killed the game for me. Thankfully, that part is just the opening section as the rest of the game, you’re able to walk normally. The stuff afterwards, though, I will say I wasn’t too much of a fan of. Like I said, this is a walking simulator so you’ll be doing a ton of walking, along with the occasional puzzle solving and these puzzles involve the usage of your light and Twig. While the walking aspects I did enjoy, it was the puzzles themselves I found to be not that engaging and, at times, downright stupidly simple. I’m not asking for Discworld-levels of moon logic puzzles here but some resemblance of a challenge would’ve been fun. The puzzles on offer aren’t bad or anything, they’re just too easy, with each puzzle relying on, again, either the bird Twig or the lighthouse’s light, which can be shown brighter than usual, allowing for the clearing of certain elements and highlighting of select objects to activate ledges or switches for Twig to interact with. Nothing too fancy or complex, though there is a jumping puzzle later in the game that was frustrating due to the camera placement, but there were also some puzzles that were unique and fun to do. For example, there’s one puzzle where you have to mess with the passage of time to access certain areas and this was one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen and one that actually stumped me at parts. It also led to a very cute moment and catchy instrumental that I admittedly was kinda disappointed when the tune ended.

Speaking of Twig, the puzzles where you take full control of the bird do range in quality. I feel the worst puzzles were the ones where you have to twirl your left stick to move an object and, I don’t know if I was just doing it wrong or there was a delay, but no matter how slow or fast I twirled said stick? It took, what felt like, an hour or so before I even made any progress. Now, the ones where you move a lever from one end to another with Twig are fine and the aforementioned time puzzle was a novel idea, it’s just the stuff with the stick whirling that did slightly soured the puzzle aspect of the game for me. In fact, that was most of the game for the first two hours or so; walking and doing some puzzles to progress. That is, until I hit a certain point in the game where the gameplay suddenly switched up on me and the puzzles became more creative, save for a few remaining stick twirling puzzles. It was here when the game went from being an OK walking simulator to being an “OK, this is awesome”-type game. Like, I never played a game that flipped genres in such a way that Keeper did and pulled it off successfully. Sure, there’s games where they combine genres, like Double Fine’s own Brutal Legend, but I don’t think I’ve played a game that starts as one genre then pivots to a completely different genre for the last act of the game. Yes, it does go back to a walking simulator for the final few moments of the game, but that section where it’s not felt very refreshing and, honestly, was some of the most fun I’ve had in a game in a while. That’s not to say the rest of the game wasn’t fun, don’t misunderstand me. The game, on a whole, is fun. I just felt this section of the game was where it kinda just clicked for me more then the other sections.

The word I’d use to sum up Keeper would be ‘Experience’. It’s not a game you boot up to become the mightiest warrior of the galaxy or to slay the legions of the damned with weapons granted to you by the powers that be. No, this is a game to turn on when you want to escape reality and enter a world unlike anything you've ever seen and feels frightening, yet, at the same time, welcoming as well. While I know Walking Simulators aren’t for everyone and the introduction may turn you off from continuing, I would implore you to give this game a shot and just stick with it. The 1920 theologian Lynn H. Hough said that life is a journey and not a destination and I feel that quote best describes this game in a nutshell. Plus, I don’t know of any other game where you play as a living lighthouse.

TigerTails Radio Season 16 Episode 39 Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf Join the Telegram Chat: https://t.me/+yold2C77m0I1MmM0 Visit the website at http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of any song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. Credits: Opening music: Magic by Hedge Haiden (Double Hedge Studios) Character art: Fitzroy Fox - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lunara-toons / https://bsky.app/profile/fitzroyfox.bsky.social Background art: Charleston Rat - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/charlestonrat / https://bsky.app/profile/charlestonrat.bsky.social If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

TigerTails Radio Season 16 Episode 40 Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf Join the Telegram Chat: https://t.me/+yold2C77m0I1MmM0 Visit the website at http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of any song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. Credits: Opening music: Magic by Hedge Haiden (Double Hedge Studios) Character art: Fitzroy Fox - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lunara-toons / https://bsky.app/profile/fitzroyfox.bsky.social Background art: Charleston Rat - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/charlestonrat / https://bsky.app/profile/charlestonrat.bsky.social If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.